


What Comes After

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Vagrant Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-17
Updated: 2007-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      "Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection." <br/>Thanks to the wonderful Sheree for helping me with my story!<p>Written for Nagia</p>
    </blockquote>





	What Comes After

**Author's Note:**

> "Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection."   
>  Thanks to the wonderful Sheree for helping me with my story!
> 
> Written for Nagia

 

 

 __  
All there is in the world if you like it.  
Enough is as good as a feast -- for that matter  
Enougher's as good as a feast for the platter.

\--

Callo Merlose took another deep breath, waiting for the frantic beating of her heart to settle.

Despite her earlier blunder of dropping her guard in the entrance to the enemy's stronghold - it was clearly a greenhorn's mistake, forcing her to remember the earlier exchange of words she had with Agent Riot - she managed to calm herself. It was never enough...

She focused on the situation at hand: her unexpected kidnapping while her worldview was shaken to the core, challenged by the rise of supernatural beings with the same air of shadows springing from nowhere. Indeed, she felt she would never banish the slowly gathering dread at the pit of her stomach at the sight of these creatures. The situation felt unreal; clearly, they existed, and yet not one of those papers she dutifully review from the VKP's extensive archives, those brittle yellowed pages falling apart with age, mentioned their true existence - as if they never were there, as if someone hid -

`No.' She shook her head and hugged herself, like a child warding off the bitter cold. `They would never do that to us. They would never lie and deprive us of what we should know.'

\--

The halls trembled violently. An unearthly wail came forth, producing the unusual chill she felt. But Callo held her ground, growing accustomed to the sensation bit by bit.

Hardin paid no mind to it, focusing instead to cast several spells on the wooden door they used earlier with Joshua, the Duke's child, in tow. Callo gave a small frown. The boy seemed far too silent, clinging to Sydney's right-hand man for dear life, yet he looked content at simply being there.

Callo caught Joshua's eyes; he gave her a small look of surprise before quickly averting his gaze away. He seemed embarrassed, as if he'd never looked at a proper lady before. He must be lonely, she thought. News of the Duke's wife and her untimely demise, which was kept secret, sprouted out unsavory and often outrageous rumors whose variations usually involved a failed assassination attempt, the use of witchcraft, and poisonings. It ceased only when the Duke, in his silent, distraught voice, officially announced his beloved wife's death as the result of childbirth. A new heir had succeeded him - at the cost of his wife.

Callo remembered that brief encounter she had with the mysterious boy. That encounter left her feeling wary of herself. It couldn't be that her mind was just playing tricks on her. It wasn't because she was feeling tired, either. She felt a part of herself unfolding. Whatever it was, it was changing her into something unrecognizable, slowly and surely.

Was simply being in Léa Monde the cause?

Léa Monde continued to shock her into silence, hidden truths gradually revealing themselves to her, especially at the part where the ugly nature of Sydney and Hardin's somewhat `unnatural' symbiotic relationship was shown. Hardin looked the part of the sheath with that healthy dose of doubt, stubbornness and unpolished strength that seemed to clash and temper with Sydney's aesthetic and cunning character: a deadly sword armed with a single-minded purpose of fulfilling his chosen mission.

She became distracted from her thoughts when she heard two loud thumps coming from the door. "They've arrived at last," said Hardin, who took quick strides and roughly jerked Callo's arm. Joshua looked between the two worriedly. Hardin's blunt actions rattled her and alarmed Joshua, who was now clutching at Hardin with a white-knuckled grip as he led them to hidden passage. From her vantage point, she could see that a multitude of cobwebs covered the area. Realizing that he was unnecessarily crushing her with his grip, he took a step back and released her. "I apologize. I did not mean to harm you. I was only..." Out of the corner of his eye, he took a quick glance at the door before he invoked a healing spell, temporarily filling the air with sparks of light.

She did not miss the soft-spoken words of comfort Hardin gave to Joshua as they resumed their course. Callo thought of Ashley again, steeling her resolve, knowing that she still had a mission to do - a mission whose success she herself had already endangered. She uttered a small prayer, wishing for his safety.

No amount of muck rolling cannot make one clean.

She would see through the end of this mission.

\--

The last of the snowflies vanished, blowing out into the ink blue sky - the remaining wisp of Hardin's life, winking out of her view completely. Callo could only stare at Joshua's frantic movements until he stopped; he turned to her, burying his face and crying. She stood still and could only hold him, her own voice lost, worrisome thoughts plaguing her as the slow golden tendrils of the morn broke out and washed over them, enfolding the pair completely in its light.

\--

Callo recognized the place. Washed with the sun's rays, remnants of the breaking morning filling the chilly air with the distant sounds of life.

From the texts, Léa Monde was fairer and livelier than the rest of Valendia. A strategically fortified stronghold blessed by the land and sea, her history was rife with glorious battles won, a place of spiritual abundance with its community that ended with a ghastly swiftness.

Truly, it was the place where it all began and ended. A place where everyone had their own wants and needs to reclaim their own piece of salvation, and she herself held no illusions about such things - for she already had learned of the consequences that followed when a mind is wrought with only temptation to guide it.

\--

They walked together leisurely, her hand over his a more comforting presence for her than she thought. Joshua gave her hand a small squeeze. "Look!" he exclaimed, excitedly pointing at a brown horse pacing relentlessly, its reins securely tied at the looming tree.

"Do you know what that is?"

"A horse!"

"For such a child, you seem to be knowledgeable."

"There were plenty of those back home. Father used to take me with him whenever he rode them. He was the one who taught me," Joshua said, his face beaming with pride.

She smiled back.

\--

Callo gently approached the horse, afraid to startle it. "Hello," she offered; the horse stared at her. She took another step, and another, before realizing that it was the one Ashley used. It took a short while to calm the distressed animal; she felt that it was waiting for his master to return, and she could only nod in sympathy as she stroked its soft handsome fur. "Joshua. It's alright. See?"

Joshua, who stood there watching, approached the horse timidly. The horse seemed to have sensed no danger from him, and when Joshua was near enough, it gave a friendly nuzzle. The boy seemed to be delighted.

"Then let us go, shall we? Your father must be worried sick about you."

Callo gave one last look at the ruins of Léa Monde; she said a small prayer again for Ashley and for the other souls that were trapped within before spurring the horse onward.

\--

Once upon a time, in order to gain freedom from a cursed lineage, a lone man sacrificed himself and his people - the countless people who followed and gave their lives to him, forgotten and erased from the records for their blasphemous acts.

Before that, a maddening chase occurred between the hunter and the hart, to gain the necessary knowledge and power to lure and defeat his true foe.

In a city nestled with darkness overflowing, its firm grip upon the malevolence of the hearts of men who intruded its grounds, laid waste and weeded out the weak, those undeserving individuals who sought control only to satiate their endless cravings of power became nothing more than slaves to the Dark, soulless undying shadows of their former selves.

Such is the way Léa Monde's power flows, forever encased in its imposing ruins...

A maiden survived the ordeal along with a child. They still carry within their hearts the inerasable memory of that fateful day, even as they felt that a part of them was lost at that time.

Yet they lived happily ever after, pursuing their own destinies.

 

 

 


End file.
